Asked by:

Using Visual Studio Express 2008 for commercial projects?

Question

Hi! Im wondering if it is possible to use Visual Studio Express 2008 (and SQL Server 2008) for commercial projects.

Thi is the scenario:I want to create an ASP.NET (commercial) web site that has to be deployed to a server of a third party hosting company (i will deploy my work through FTP to that production server that it is not mine and that already supports ASP.NET web sites), so i want to use Visual Web Developer 2008 Express (and SQL Server 2008 Express) on my development machine only and then deploy the work to production server.

My questions are:

1) can i use Visual Web Developer 2008 Express for such commercial project? 2) can i use SQL Server 2008 Express for such commercial project?

Thanks in advance!

Monday, December 29, 2008 10:29 PM

All replies

Yes, you can use both Visual Web Developer 2008 and SQL Server 2008 Express for such a commercial project. However, I think if you want to create a big project, it is recommended to use other more powerful Visual Studio and SQL Server products. Actually the express versions of both Visual Studio and SQL Server have many limitations in function. But if the express versions have already met your request, you can just use them to develop your commercial project.

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/csharpide/thread/8e9ed0d7-11ff-402a-8489-9b5f05eeb706
http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/vssetup/thread/60424309-bd78-4ca2-b618-03c4a16123b6

and thanks for the answer! After i have read your answer, i start to install Visual Web Developer Express 2008 but, reading the license terms, i found the following paragraph that precisely deny to use the software for "commercial software hosting services":

[...]

9. SCOPE OF LICENSE.The software
is licensed, not sold. This agreement only gives you some rights to use the software.Microsoft reserves all other rights.Unless applicable law gives you more rights
despite this limitation, you may use the software only as expressly permitted
in this agreement.In doing so, you must
comply with any technical limitations in the software that only allow you to
use it in certain ways.You may not
work around any technical limitations in the software.For example, Microsoft has technically
limited or disabled extensibility for the software, and so you may not extend
the software by, among other things, loading or injecting into the software any
non-Microsoft add-ins, macros, or packages; modifying the software registry
settings; or adding features or functionality equivalent to that found in other
Visual Studio products.

You also may not

• reverse engineer, decompile or
disassemble the software, except and only to the extent that applicable law
expressly permits, despite this limitation;

• make more copies of the
software than specified in this agreement or allowed by applicable law, despite
this limitation;

• publish the software for
others to copy;

• rent, lease or lend the
software;

• transfer the software or this
agreement to any third party; or

• use the software for
commercial software hosting services.

[...]

Is this statement related to my type of commercial project (described on the first post)? And If yes, how?

Actually “use the software for commercial software hosting services” means you cannot deploy Visual Web Developer 2008 on the server on a standalone basis for others to access. Also you cannot use it to build service to sell third party commercial software.

If I understand correctly, you are developing your own ASP.NET website. It is deployed in a third party hosting company. So if you are not going to use the website for commercial software sale, the limitation you mentioned won't be related to your target. However, suppose that you want to use the website for commercial software sale, it should be licensed by Microsoft.

Best Regards,Lingzhi

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.
http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/csharpide/thread/8e9ed0d7-11ff-402a-8489-9b5f05eeb706
http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/vssetup/thread/60424309-bd78-4ca2-b618-03c4a16123b6